$5 Million Mca Pledge Foundered In Power Feud

Ex-chairman, Wife Reportedly At Odds With Museum Chief

January 11, 1998|By Alan G. Artner, Tribune Art Critic.

After Paul Oliver-Hoffmann's term as Museum of Contemporary Art chairman ended in 1991, rumors circulated that he and his wife had revoked a pledge of $5 million because of a feud with the director over money management.

Seven years later, the rumors have proved true.

In a controversy that reveals the world of museum politics, privilege and fundraising--and is an example of a growing litigious spirit among non-profit organizations across the country--the MCA has sued Paul and his wife, Camille, for non-payment of the pledge.

The couple say they withheld funds because they were "driven from that institution . . . through circumstances and events which we have declined to make public these past seven years for fear of damaging the long-range prospects of that museum."

Sources close to the MCA at the time the pledge was made say the "circumstances" were conflicts with director Kevin Consey over financial management. Consey was unavailable for comment on this article.

"I remember a specific meeting when Paul challenged Kevin," said former lawyer and entrepreneur Joe McHugh from his home in Vancouver, British Columbia, last week. McHugh was chairman of the museum's budget committee during the first year of Oliver-Hoffmann's term.

"We were coming out of a time of some very expensive exhibitions and were just about breaking even financially. My charge (by Oliver-Hoffmann's predecessor John Cartland) was to make sure we could live with those issues.

"Kevin wanted to rent extra office space and hire more staff. Paul asked why we were moving so quickly. He didn't give orders. He didn't intimidate. Any good board chairman had to ask. It was his responsibility to make intelligent business decisions.

"During the first six months of 1990 Paul asked a lot of questions. He wanted to proceed conservatively, assured of a backup plan if we didn't proceed with the new building. But Kevin proceeded. He raced ahead like a wild bull--by whose authority I still don't know."

Said Cartland, "There was no question that Kevin and Paul disagreed on a number of financial issues, but as a practical matter, at the end of the year we always balanced the budget. I feel (Consey) was very fiscally responsible."

The museum's lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, states that the Oliver-Hoffmanns' pledge was to be paid in full by June 30, 1997. Attached to the lawsuit were seven payment forms and unanswered reminders dating from November 1991 to June 1997.

Lawsuits to collect unpaid pledges became more common among not-for-profit institutions in North America beginning in 1995, when the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the rule-making body of the accounting world, made a change in how pledges were to be recorded. The board, headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., required all non-profit groups to record pledges as income at the time they were received.

"We fought the change but lost," said Edward Able, head of the American Association of Museums, which represents 8,000 institutions. "And the issue has been highly charged for non-profit groups since that time." He said the association has not polled its membership to determine either the amounts of the suits or their frequency, but people throughout the art community are hard-pressed to cite many instances of museums suing over pledges as large as the Oliver-Hoffmanns'. A similar suit by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1994 is the only one to achieve as high a profile. (There, a spokesperson only would say the institution had "reached an amicable settlement" in its case involving a $5 million pledge from the estate of a former museum chairman.)

It is the MCA's first such lawsuit; according to MCA spokeswoman Maureen King, all other pledges to build and endow a new facility at 220 E. Chicago Ave. were fulfilled.

The Oliver-Hoffmanns made an unusual couple in Chicago's art community. They met as teenagers and soon married. Friends invariably said they functioned as a unit, which goes some way toward explaining the hyphenated surname that Paul adopted before it became fashionable. They were not well known among the downtown crowd of collectors until they became involved with contemporary art in the 1970s. Thereafter, they tended to stay out of the social spotlight.

The early careers of both the Oliver-Hoffmanns were in law. Camille became the first female lawyer in the Illinois state's attorney's office outside of Cook County, handling cases in child and spousal abuse. Paul was former Montgomery Ward chairman John A. Barr's assistant in the corporate division of Wards and later served for a brief time as a municipal judge.